STT is a tax on buying and selling securities on Indian exchanges. In F&O it is 0.15% of premium on options sold and 0.05% on futures sold.
Securities Transaction Tax (STT) is a tax the Government of India charges on buying and selling securities on a recognised stock exchange such as NSE or BSE. The exchange collects it through your broker at the time of the trade, and it shows up as its own line on your contract note. You pay it on every qualifying trade, whether the trade made money or not.
| Segment | STT rate | Charged on |
|---|---|---|
| Options sold | 0.15% | Premium, sell side |
| Options exercised | 0.15% | Intrinsic value, paid by the buyer |
| Futures sold | 0.05% | Contract value, sell side |
| Equity delivery | 0.1% | Trade value, on both buy and sell |
| Equity intraday | 0.025% | Trade value, sell side |
The F&O rates apply from 1 April 2026, after the Union Budget 2026-27 raised them.
Option buyers pay no STT when they buy. They pay it when they sell to close the position, or on the option’s intrinsic value if they hold an in-the-money option until it is exercised at expiry.
| Period | Futures sold | Options sold (premium) | Options exercised (intrinsic value) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Until 30 Sep 2024 | 0.0125% | 0.0625% | 0.125% |
| 1 Oct 2024 to 31 Mar 2026 | 0.02% | 0.1% | 0.125% |
| From 1 Apr 2026 | 0.05% | 0.15% | 0.15% |
In two Budgets, STT on futures has gone up four times and STT on options sold has gone up 2.4 times. Both increases were aimed at cooling speculative F&O trading.
You buy one lot of a Nifty call (65 units) at a premium of ₹120 and sell it at ₹150.
Before April 2026, at 0.1%, the same trade paid ₹9.75 in STT.
An option writer does the same trade in reverse: sells the call at ₹150 first, then buys it back at ₹120. STT is ₹14.63 on the sale and nothing on the buyback. STT follows the sell transaction, whether that sale opens a position or closes it.
You sell one lot of Nifty futures at 22,776.10.
The same sale paid ₹296.09 at the old 0.02% rate. Because futures STT is charged on the full contract value rather than on a premium, it is usually the largest STT bill per lot in F&O.
On Tuesday 6 October 2026, a Nifty weekly expiry, the Nifty closed at 22,776.10. A bought 22,700 call held to expiry settled at its intrinsic value:
Before April 2026, exercise was taxed at 0.125% of intrinsic value while selling was taxed at 0.1% of premium, so holding an in-the-money option to expiry usually cost more in STT than selling it before the close. Now both rates are 0.15%, so on STT alone that penalty is largely gone.
To see what a setup nets after STT, brokerage and exchange charges before you take it, run the numbers through Stolo’s scalping calculator.
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